Seven months after a criminal illegal immigrant allegedly shot dead a South Los Angeles high school football player, City Council members Monday launched a long-awaited review of Special Order 40 – the controversial rule that restricts the LAPD from checking immigration status of witnesses and suspects.

Amid heated testimony from supporters and opponents of the order – including former Police Chief Daryl Gates and the family of the slain teen, Jamiel Shaw Jr. – the city’s public safety committee kicked off what is expected to be an intensive rethinking of the 30-year-old rule.

Police and civil rights groups say changes to the rule could make illegal immigrants afraid to call police with crime tips or to ask for protection. But opponents say changes are needed to get potentially dangerous illegal immigrant gang members off L.A.’s streets.

Defending the order he enacted 30 years ago, Gates said political forces have twisted a fundamentally good rule.

“Never ever was Special Order 40 designed or written to keep law enforcement from enforcing the law,” or to discourage police from reporting undocumented criminals to federal authorities, Gates said.

The interpretation of the mandate has evolved over the years as illegal immigration grew into an intensely political issue, leading many officers to fear working with federal authorities, he said.

The emotional public hearing was sparked in part by the March slaying of 17-year-old Jamiel, allegedly by an illegal immigrant gang member who had been released from custody the day before.

During the hearing, audience members ignored council members’ pleas for decorum, and instead applauded and jeered speakers. On several occasions, Special Order 40 proponents broke out in chants such as “Si se puede!” – “Yes we can!”

Groups wanting to see LAPD officers arrest illegal immigrants and work more closely with federal agents rallied around the Shaw family. They argued that if his suspected killer had been deported instead of released from jail, Shaw and others might still be alive.

But civil rights and minority groups along with high-ranking LAPD officials said the department does not have the resources to enforce immigration law. Even if it did, they said changes to the ruling could force otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants into hiding from police.

The LAPD presently is able to work with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to deport illegal immigrants, though the cooperation has not been uniform as misconceptions abound, officials said.

The LAPD is setting up a training program to clear up misunderstanding among officers confused about the special order’s meaning.

As one of its first decisions, the public safety committee asked the LAPD to report back when more details are available.

Outside the hearing, Xiomara Corpe o, who opposes changes to Special Order 40, said she shared a common experience with Shaw’s family – her uncle was slain in cold blood. The family never agonized over the suspect’s citizenship.

“We felt the pain of my uncle, but none of it would bring him back,” she said.

Shaw’s family, however, had a different take – an innocent’s life trumps another’s civil rights.

“You might get deported. Well, you’re still alive, and it’s better to be deported than dead,” said Shaw’s father, Jamiel Shaw Sr.

“I gotta be dead to see my son, if even that,” he said. “All we do is kiss his pictures.”